Bathroom update; week three

So we’re at the end of week three. I’m pretty happy with our progress. So at the end of week three I have no walls, no shower, no ceiling and no doors. All in all we’re doing very well. We have changed our minds a few times; moved one wall to allow room for a chest fridge and rearranged the layout of the whole room to accommodate a green Bosch washing machine and dryer.  We’ve also completely rewired and have moved the meter box outside the house (woohoo no more rubber wiring in our home!). 

Anyways it’s all been smooth sailing; life has been pretty comfy despite having no shower, hot water or washing machine. We’re very lucky mum and dad and my brother and his family only live down the road and so we’ve been going there using their showers. Mum’s also been doing our washing which has been great especially since John uses cloth nappies. It’s been such a good feeling doing most of the work ourselves (and saved us truck loads of money). 

My parents have been amazing and have helped us so much with everything dad and Mr Ecochick have had three weeks off work and both have been flat out every day. Mum and I have been doing bits and pieces here and there; spent the last two days on my hands and knees stripping and nailing floors. John has thought this has all been great fun and has been playing with all the tools he can get his hands on. Ceiling goes in tomorrow – exciting.

Birthmarks

I saw this on cafe mom's site and think it is SO beautiful I just HAD to share it. I love the idea of this though not toally sure I feel the same but I still think this is super lovely and I'm working my way towards feeling like this.

A wonderful quiet Sunday morning

It’s Sunday morning and we’re at mum and dad’s lovely warm home. The boys are still asleep and it is so quiet and peaceful (well except for the snoring of the sick old cat next to me). I can’t get over how peaceful today feels I’m the only one up really don’t know the last time I felt this kind of quiet and peace. Strange must be from the knowledge that my life is pretty amazing and I’m so thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. I guess I can sit here quietly in peace knowing how full and fantastic my life is. We’re at mum and dad’s as they are away for the weekend and we have no shower so we’re playing here. It’s really nice to be sitting here in my nighty and mum’s dressing gown and their house is so warm I have no socks on. I so love central heating. We’re going to save up and get some too. I know it’s not the most environmental thing to do but I really hate being cold (we’re just looking at our options at the moment). So just thought I’d share my morning peace and strong feelings of love today. This photo kind of sums up how I feel this morning; so lots of love and peace to you all. 

Don't throw that away!

Check out this lovely book I got for John. I just love it. Got it super cheap from Ziwi. They are a great cheap online store. Loving this book. Love the idea and layout and everything. 

Forgot to mention this book is called Don't throw that away! and it's by Lara Bergen. 

How NOT to f*** them up

August article for the Parents centre newsletter

I must admit the only reason I picked up this book was because of its very catchy title and boy am I glad I did. This book is written by Oliver James a clinical child psychologist and well known author (he also wrote Alluenza and How they F*** you up). As a parent I constantly worry if am I doing the right thing for my child. I am super aware that everything I do now will shape and affect my son for LIFE! That’s a huge responsibility so I’m a strong believer in reading to try to be the best mum I can.  

How not to f*** them up basically indentifies three different types of mothers; the hugger - she might be a stay at home mum who loves to be in physical contact with their child – very touchy feely type of mum; the organiser – a mum who may go back to work early on, likes to have structure and routine and the fleximum; who basically swings between being a hugger and an organiser which can also change with different children. James is VERY unjudgemental of each of the mothering styles; he describes all the advantages and disadvantages of each style and you can pick and choose what suits your family best. He has some great tips on dealing with under threes to suit all different lifestyle choices. This book is factual, funny and scarily accurately as he describes each of the mothers – there were many moments when I went oh look there I am! Oh my I do that! I believe this book will help me be a better mother and I highly recommend it to everyone.   

Bathroom renovations

So the new bathroom has begun (we’re a week in) so all is going to be a little quiet on the posting front as I really should be helping rather than playing with my much loved green computer. I’m very excited about the wall-less/ ceilingless bathroom and laundry that I now have! Mr Ecochick and I had a wonderful Sunday night last week bashing; that’s right bashing with a hammer!! Who hasn’t wanted to do that – just pick up a hammer and smash a freaking hole in the wall! I tell you demolition work is VERY satisfying! So primal smashing holes in walls!  And you know what I’m awesome at demolition work!

I made this hole!!!! Felt real naughty!

After week one the renovations are coming along very nicely. We have removed all the walls and ceilings in this whole area (oh plus two walls!). We still have a shower and a toilet but I think these are coming out on Monday so at the moment it’s just really cold but not too big a deal as we have still had a shower but the next few weeks will be a little more like camping. All good family lives close by so no big deal. I am very excited about the new green bathroom that we’re making! Will keep you posted.  

Best blog awards!!! We're in!!!

I’m super excited to announce that NZ Ecochick is a finalist in the AusMumpreneur Awards in the best blog category. I think this is an amazing community with so much information, skills and knowledge to share I feel very excited to be a part of this community and am so excited that I’m in best blog awards section. Since the best blog awards are won on number of votes if you can would you please go to the connect2mums website, join up to this great community; check out the great categories and amazing mums out there and while you’re there please click on the pink like button for NZ Ecochick. Thanks heaps. Excitement building over here!!!!

John's tree

Before John was born we bought a placenta planting pack made by Birth to Earth. I wanted to keep John’s placenta and then plant a tree on it (this is a common practice in New Zealand). It amazed me how many different cultures had different traditions surrounding their child's placenta. We got a lovely port wine magnolia (Magnolia Soulangeana Cleopatra) from my brother and his wife as a birth present for John so this would be “John’s tree”. The placenta planting pack is a 100% biodegradable pack that you just pop your placenta in and then you can plant it straight in the ground without defrosting or any mess getting out. We were going to plant the tree after John was born but that never quite happened so we decided we would plant it on John’s first birthday. 

I love this pack and also love that John now has his own tree that he can associate with when he is older. The pack comes with a lovely copper tag (actually I had to buy this one separately – it depends on where you buy it from if it comes with the pack or not) and also a very cool book that you can read to your children about their tree. You can even "register" your child's tree on the Birth to Earth website. Going to do that now. Exciting. I would totally recommend this pack and will be buying it again when we have another child (no not yet so don’t get too excited!)

Edible trees vs pretty ones

It was Mr Ecochick’s birthday yesterday so I bought him an amazing Bearss lime tree (don’t see the point of lemons as everything a lemon can do a lime can do better!). It’s a really nice big one with lots of fruit on it. I decided to pay the extra money and buy a big one as we cannot be bothered waiting for the tree to grow up and produce fruit. It cost 4 times more to buy the bigger tree but I believe it’s worth it. So now we have lovely fresh limes straight from our garden!!!

Our new lime tree (came in a pot as it was 

the only one I could buy at this time of year) 

also yummy apples from our tree.

When we moved into our house I said we wouldn’t buy or plant anything that didn’t produce! I don’t see the point of paying for something that looks pretty for one session or only a few times a year; I would much rather buy trees that add something to our life. There is already an apple tree in our garden that we thought was dead but has produced lots of apples this year. We’ve cooked them up for John and he loves them. We also have a huge grape vine that produced loads of yummy grapes. Mr Ecochick and John ate truck loads of them. It’s a great feeling eating plants from your own garden.

We will not be pulling trees out to plant fruit trees I don’t believe that is environmentally or pocket friendly at all but when replacing trees or putting in new trees they will have to produce. There is a section by our bedroom that I will be making into an edible garden with berries, lavender and rosemary bushes. Can’t wait.

Our veggie garden has been amazing this year and has produced SO much silverbeet, spinach and kale. There is NOTHING like going out to our garden to pick fresh food for dinner or breakfast. So now we have a few fruit trees to add to our list.  

Great links:
Frugal Kiwi 

Update: got a snow queen nectarine tree for my birthday so can add nectarines to our list of home grown yummies. Hopefully next year we might get some fruit. I do love nectarines.

Nijntje cake

Had great fun making the birthday cake. I baked the cake in our big lasagne dish, mum printed out a Nijntje picture for me; I cut it out and put it on the cake then cut the cake around the picture to get the correct shape. Mum’s best friend is a professional cake maker and so she helped me ice the cake (was very lucky that she could help me); she had the most amazing cake supplies that I was able to use. We rolled out some almond icing and put this all over the cake. We made up the different colours of icing and then piped the icing as Nijntje’s outline. It’s actually pretty hard to do and I wasn’t able to do it straight at all – speed bumps. All in all the cake turned out really well. John thought it was super yummy and suck it straight in his mouth (he’s never had cake before so boy was he keen).

How green was the party?

So after a great party on Saturday I thought I’d report how green the party really was. In the post Green party time I mentioned all the different things we were going to do to reduce the waste and environmental impact of this party. We had a great day with lots of super yummy food and great company. So we used “real” plates, crockery, glasses, mugs, cloth napkins and loads of tea towels to cover food. We had only a small bag of rubbish to throw away and the rest can be recycled or has been washed already. The decorations looked great; I used lots of slingers and also wonderful pompoms that a girlfriend gave me - these came from another friend’s wedding – it meant I didn’t have to make them and also they have been recycled already. Mum now wants to use them for another party so they will have another party to shine at.

John got some amazing pressies; an oh so green truck and also lots of amazing homemade gifts; beautiful cardigans from grandma and nonna, a really cute elephant and matching pj pants my sister-in-law made. He also got lots of lovely books and wooden puzzles. It was great that other people respected our wish for no gifts and so we were able to reduce the number of gifts that John received.  

All in all it was a wonderful day and I was very happy with the little rubbish we created. Having a green party was easy and lots of fun. Thank you so much to everyone who came and to my mum, Rochelle and my mother in law for the amazing food and wonderful support throughout the day.